Unbelievable

He gathered the boys into the car and drove to the hospital. They knew she was gone, but still couldn't quite believe it.  She'd looked into her daughters' eyes, that said, please mummy, I've had enough, it's time to go. Yes my darling angel, you can go now, fly high....She decided there and then to withdraw treatment. As she went she was hugged close to her mums breast.

They walked solemnly down the busy high street. Their son being cared for at the childrens hospice. As they turned in towards the footpath the stream glittered in the dappled sunlight, inviting them to follow its course through the woodland. Marriage and the new baby had not in any way been as they had anticipated. They stopped for a moment at a fence, looking across the fields beyond. 'well', he said, I just want to know if I'm on the will yet..... Not long ago thousands of pounds to get him out of debt, and the bank account had been changed to a joint account, this was incredible! Audacious, outrageous...unbelievable.  They'd been married just about eighteen months, he'd moved in to her home with her three children, life with their newest and disabled child was about as challenging as it could get.

She stood in the queue at the checkout when the phone rang. 'you have to get home straight away, there's been a fight'. On arriving home the front door stood wide open, There was a knife sticking point down in the laminated kitchen floor, and a teenager sitting slumped, head in hands. there was bloodstains on the wall behind, and scratches and red welts on his torso and arms. His dad had run out the door and no-one knew his whereabouts. He'd been angry that his son didn't want to come to the family meal!

On her way back to the car and the phone rang...not for the first time in that hour! 'Mum, there's been a fight.'  The police were called and statement given, but no prosecution. He received victim support and had his hand strapped for weeks. His son said he's goaded his step brother.

The nightshifts were the worst. Trying to get to sleep whilst the other takes first watch is hard when you're stressed. She got out of bed and stepped through onto the landing, and heard the tv being switched on and off from mute to volume. Creeping down the stairs she peered round the corner, and to her dismay saw moving images of naked girls reflected on the framed pictures hanging on the walls of the lounge. He was obviously aroused. Her stomach lurched and she crept back up to bed on shaking legs. The discussion was for tomorrow, with the denial and protestations of unforgiveness meted onto him. It wasn't the first time, and probably wasn't the last.

The single mum of four emerged from the courtroom into the cavernous hall outside, she was shaking. Her daughter, as well as the friend had been sexually abused by a family friend a couple of years ago, but it never got less painful. Having a child who has survived cancer and the treatment, resulting in many addititional clinical needs and major disability from brain damage can sometimes take your eye off the ball, and you can so easily feel to blame when something goes wrong.




Life is what we make it........but often it's what others in our lives make it.
Sometimes things happen that make you wonder, not wonder but wonder.
Sometimes it just seems unbelievable.





NOTE: As a parent of a disabled child, who has met others in similar circumstances,I have pulled on collective experiences to create a picture of the obsurdity and adversity of life in all it's colours...the bright and the dull blend to weave a tapestry of life,into which we are all in some way interwoven. In our humanity we carry on.....the stresses and strains of life constantly reminding us that hurting is par for the course.